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Aliens of London (TV story)
Aliens of London 'is the fourth episode of the first series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Keith Boak and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. Overview To be added Synopsis The Doctor takes Rose home. But when a spaceship crash lands in the Thames, London is closed off and the whole world in on Red Alert. While the Doctor investigates the alien survivor, Rose discovers that her home is no longer a safe haven. Who are the Slitheen? Plot Returning to the Powell Estate in the present, the TARDIS lands outside Rose's flat; stepping out of the ship, Rose is startled by the fact that only twelve hours have passed back home while she and the Doctor have visited both the past and the future. While Rose heads off to see her mother, Jackie, the Doctor remains outside; wandering around for a bit, he spots a flyer pinned up on a wall nearby. Investigating it, he is shocked to find it's a missing poster for Rose and rushes after her. Rose arrives in her flat and Jackie, following a moment of joy and relief, embraces her in tears; Rose spots similar flyers strewn about the flat when the Doctor bursts in breathlessly and tells her that it's not been twelve hours she's been gone but twelve months. Later that day, a furious Jackie has a policeman come to the flat and demands answers; completely unable to tell her where she'd been, Rose just says she's been travelling. The Doctor tries to cut in to admit his fault but Jackie just slaps him. On the roof, the Doctor and Rose talk about the year she missed when, out of nowhere, a damaged spacecraft roars and flies overhead. It continues on a poor flightpath over the city, with every citizen watching it; after crashing into and demolishing one of the faces of Big Ben, it finishes it's descent, crashing into the Thames. Rushing frantically through the city, the Doctor and Rose find themselves unable to approach with the roads blocked and military refusing to let civilians pass. After the Doctor debunks going to investigate in the TARDIS, they return to Rose's flat and watch the reports of the crash on TV news stations. Ignoring Jackie's watch party, the Doctor learns from the news that a supposed alien life form was found in the wreckage and was brought to Albion Hospital for examination. At the hospital, General Asquith is brought to the morgue where he is shown the creature's body by Dr. Sato. He orders her to hide it until a number of experts can be brought in when she asks about a rumor regarding the Prime Minister, but Asquith just leaves without answering. The news reports continue outside 10 Downing Street as MP Joseph Green arrives and is escorted by his liaison Indra Ganesh up to the cabinet room, where he is met by Margaret Blaine and Oliver Charles. Once Green, Blaine and Charles are alone inside, they all start laughing insidiously with each other. That evening, the Doctor tries to discreetly slip away from Rose's flat, but she catches him out and he gives her the TARDIS key to ensure that he doesn't disappear before he leaves. However, while everybody on the estate is partying, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS, produces another key and goes inside. From his flat, Mickey spots the Doctor heading for the TARDIS and runs down to intercept him, but he fails to make it before the TARDIS dematerialises. In Downing Street, after Green, Blaine and Charles leave the cabinet room, MP Harriet Jones attempts to speak to them, but she is ignored; with nobody watching, she sneaks inside the cabinet room and takes a look at the emergency protocols, drawn up in the case of an extreterrestrial incursion. At the hospital, Dr. Sato continues to work late when she hears thudding coming from the cold storage unit where she had stored the alien. At the same time, the Doctor arrives at the hospital but is immediately caught by the soldiers stationed there. When Sato opens the door and screams, the Doctor leads the soliders through the corridors to investigate. They find Sato scared witless and the alien missing, having been not quite as dead as assumed. While the soldiers put the building on lockdown, the Doctor finds the alien, a genetically modified pig in a spacesuit. Upon seeing him, the creature runs away in fear and the Doctor chases after it but is unable to stop one of the soldiers shooting it dead. In the cabinet room, Harriet hears Green, Blaine and Charles approaching with General Asquith and hides. Asquith storms into the room laying into Green about his complete inactivity in the crisis and threatens to relieve him of command if he doesn't stop being childish. However, neither Green, Blaine nor Charles take him seriously. Green then approaches him ominously and undoes a zip concealed around his forehead, revealing a luminous blue light and Blaine and Charles then do the same. From inside the cupboard, Harriet watches the three change into a group of alien creatures which then butcher Asquith. The pig pilot is brought back to the morgue and is examines by the Doctor and Sato, who both conclude that the creature, despite appearances, isn't genuine. They deduce that it was a simple animal taken from Earth with rudimentary technology implanted into it's brain and made it into a hoax alien before it was placed into the ship and forced to crash. While Sato wonders why aliens would bother to fake other aliens, the Doctor discreetly goes back to the TARDIS and leaves. In Rose's flat, Jackie and her friends celebrate the alien's arrival when Mickey shows up and takes Jackie and Rose into the kitchen, spiting Rose for the manner of her departure, as he couldn't explain her disappearance causing everybody to believe he had murdered her. When he tells her that the Doctor has left, Rose rushes out of the flat, followed by Mickey and Jackie to where the TARDIS had been. While Mickey grumbles, Rose tries to defend herself and the Doctor when the key she was given starts glowing and the TARDIS returns in front of Rose, Mickey and a stunned Jackie. Inside, the Doctor excuses himself for going to take a look when Jackie and Mickey follow Rose in. While Mickey and the Doctor argue, Jackie is overwhelmed by the TARDIS and runs away. Examing the spaceship on the scanner, the Doctor and Rose try and figure out the alien's motives for placing the world on red alert. Back in the flat, Jackie sees a number on the news designated to reporting more alien sightings; she rings the number and reports the Doctor and the TARDIS to the government. On the scanner, the Doctor tracks the ship's trajectory back to discover that it came from the planet in the first place, taking off, slingshotting around and coming back down, meaning that the aliens behind the crisis have been at work for a while. Meanwhile, the creature that was in Charles redresses itself in Asquith's skin, taking the skin of Charles and dumping it in the cupboard where Harriet is hiding, before they are interrupted by Ganesh, who tells them about the code nine on the Doctor and suggests that they bring him in. In the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers UNIT investigating and decides to go undercover to investigate; however, upon leaving the ship, the TARDIS is swarmed by the military. Mickey runs off and hides to avoid being caught and the Doctor and Rose are arrested and escorted to 10 Downing Street. Upon arriving, the Doctor and other alien experts are brought in to discuss the crisis while Rose, who isn't permitted entry, stays with Harriet, who goes to show her the proof of what she'd seen. Back at Rose's flat, Jackie is visited by a policeman to talk about the Doctor, unaware that he's another one of the aliens. While the Doctor takes the stage to talk about the situation in the meeting room, Rose and Harriet look for signs of other technology in the cabinet room and stumble across the dead body of the Prime Minister. Ganesh wanders in and finds them with the body before they are interrupted by Blaine. Downstairs, the Doctor realises upon assessing the facts that the whole situation was a trap, a ploy to bring together all the experts in aliens in one place. At that point, the policeman in Rose's flat, Blaine and Asquith all unzip their foreheads and start to pull off the skin suits they were wearing to reveal large, slimy green creatures with three large claws. The creature disguises as Asquith identifies them as the Slitheen. Blaine, meanwhile, lunges at Harriet and Rose and grabs Ganesh, choking him to death, while the Slitheen in Rose's flat advances on Jackie. In the meeting room, Green pulls a red switch from his jacket and switches actives the ID cards the guests are wearing, creating a massive electric shock disabling everybody, including the Doctor, while the Asquith Slitheen laughs ominously... Cast * Doctor Who - Christopher Eccleston * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri * Spray Painter - Corey Doabe * Policeman - Ceris Jones * Reporter - Jack Tarlton * Reporter - Lachele Carl * Ru - Fiesta Mei Ling * Bau - Basil Chung * Matt Baker - As himself * Andrew Marr - As himself * General Asquith - Rupert Vansittart * Joseph Green - David Verrey * Indra Ganesh - Navin Chowdhry * Harriet Jones - Penelope Wilton * Margaret Blaine - Annette Badland * Doctor Sato - Naoko Mori * Oliver Charles - Eric Potts * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke * Alien - Jimmy Vee * Strickland - Steve Speirs * Slitheen - Elizabeth Fost, Paul Kasey, Alan Ruscoe Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Aliens of London'' page on '''Doctor Who Website